美国文学考试重点

American Romanticism (美国浪漫主义): it stretch from the end of the 18th century to outbreak of the Civil War. Its chief emphasis freedom, individualism and imagination. an innate, subjective, and intuitive perception of man. The representatives about romanticism period included Irving欧文, Cooper库珀and Bryant.布莱恩特9American naturalism (美国自然主义): A particular school of philosophy popular in the late 19th century, usually defined as pessimistic determinism. It conceives of man as controlled by his instincts or his passions, or by his social and economic environment and circumstances. The most important writers of this movement include Crane, Norris, London and Dreiser. ·德莱塞American realism (美国现实主义): A movement that sprang up in the latter half of the 19th century, which aims at an interpretation of the actualities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism, or romantic color. The three leading figures are William DeanHowells威廉·狄恩·豪威尔斯, Mark Twain马克·吐温, and Henry James.Local Colorism(乡土色彩): A movement which came into prominence in the U.S. afterthe Civil War, perhaps as an attempt to create the illusion of an indigenous little world with qualities by which people can tell it apart from the world outside. The fiction or verse emphasizes its setting, being concerned with the character of a district or of an era, as marked by its customs, dialect, costumes, landscape, etc. The distinguished writers of local colorism include Mark Twain马克·吐温, Bret Harte, Willa Cather, Hamlin Garland.The Lost Generation (迷惘的一代)：After the first World War. It describes the Americans who remained in Paris as a colony of “expatriates” or exiles. It describes the Americans who returned to their native land with an intense awareness of living in an unfamiliar changing world. The most well-known figures in “the Lost Generation” are Ezra Pound埃兹拉庞德, Ernest Hemingway欧内斯特·海明威, F. Scott Fitzgerald,弗朗西斯·菲茨杰拉德Southern Renaissance (南方文艺复兴): A term to describe the revival of American Southern literature from the 1920s and 1930s to the 1950s. Most of the writings deal with the struggle between those who embraced social changes and those who were skeptical and conservative or challenged social change outright. The writers were engaged in an attempt to come to terms not only with the inherited values of the Southern tradition, but also with a certain way of perceiving and dealing with the past. William Faulkner,威廉·福克纳Katherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams are among the most distinguished writers in the early 20th century.二、作家、作品1、Benjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林1733-1758 (发明避雷针、双镜片眼镜)--colonial period(殖民时期1607—1775)"Poor Richard's Almanac"（穷人查理德的年鉴）——The Way to Wealth （致富之道）；The Autobiography （自传）1.Why did Franklin write his Autobiography?Franklin says that because his son may wish to know about his life, he is taki ng his one week vacation in the English countryside to record his past. He also sa ys that he has enjoyed his life and would like to repeat it4.What features do you find in the style of the above selection?It is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision. The narrative is lucid(易懂的), the structure is simple, the imagery is homely(朴素的)2、Washington Irving华盛顿.欧文1783-1859——RomanticismSketch Book《见闻札记》——Rip Van Winkle瑞普凡温克尔、The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷的传说3、Nathanial Hawthorne纳塞尼尔霍桑—Transcendentalism超验主义时期The Scarlet Letter《红字》：Hester（女主）The themes of The Scarlet LetterSinThe experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge—specifically, in knowledge of what it means to be immortal. For Hester, the scarlet letter functions as "her passport into regions where other women dared not tread", leading her to "speculate" about her society and herself more "boldly" than anyone else in New England.Past and presentThe clashing of past and present is explored in various ways. For example, the character of the old General, whose heroic qualities include a distinguished name, perseverance, integrity, compassion, and moral inner strength, is said to be "the soul and spirit of New England hardihood". Now put out to pasture, he sometimes presides over the Custom House run by corrupt public servants, who skip work to sleep, allow or overlook smuggling, and are supervised by an inspector with "no power of thought, nor depth of feeling, no troublesome sensibilities", who is honest enough but without a spiritual compass.4、Edgar Allan Poe 埃德加.阿伦.坡---- Transcendentalism超验主义时期The Raven《乌鸦》（the title poem of a collection,）It is a 108 line verse narrative in trochaic octameter - eight trichaic feet per line, each foot having one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable, with a rhyme scheme of abcbbb. The main theme of poem is one of “undying devotion”5、Mark Twain马克·吐温The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn哈克贝利·费恩历险记After all, Huck is only a child, the world seems new to him. Everything he encou nters is a crash for thought. Because of his background, however, he does more t han just apply the rules that he has been taught—he creates his own rules. To some degree, it can be said that he is treacherous. But Huck is also a good and noble boy. All of his virtues come from his kind hear t and his sense of humanity. On the way of floating in Mississippi river, Huck tries his best to help Jim and changes his prejudice about Black people. He concerns about the drunk man in the circus. He shows sympathy for the nieces of Peter Wi lks and saves money for them. His sympathy even goes to those who are totally u nworthy of his attention such as the stranded robbers and the king and the duke. Besides, Huck is smart, and has a sharp eye for details. Although he is uneducate d anddoesnt always understand everything he sees, or its significance, nature tea cheshim a lot of things. Moreover, this quality helps him to avoid dangers and ov ercome difficulties during the travel.6 、Theodore Dreiser西奥多·德莱塞1871-1945---- American realismSister Carrie嘉莉姐妹HurstwoodCourages to persue his dreams and true loveAdventurous spirit7、Robert Frost罗伯特·弗罗斯特1874-1963The Road Not taken没有选择的道路8、Ezra Pound (埃兹拉庞德)——Imagism (or the Imagist Movement) (意象派诗歌)“I n a Station of the Metro” is undoubtedly the most famous of imagist poems The Cantos诗章9、F Scott Fitzgerald弗朗西斯·菲茨杰拉德1896-1940(迷惘的一代)The Great Gatsby了不起的盖茨比Because of his profound love to Daisy even though the others become selfish and sophisticated in the society. He devotes himself to making big fortune for expecting Daisy’s return; he take responsibility of car accident at the expense of being put in the prison. Yes, this great man displays something called ProfoundLove when the society members’ hearts becoming colder and colder. And I always feel sympathetic to Gatsby’s consequence. We may say how stupid he is to pay so much to Daisy, but in other words, how persistent he is to his believing about love. He always thinks that all his behaviors can make Daisy change her mind and come back.Gatsby is a tragic hero in the novel, maybe his profound love and strong faith lead to his bad ending. But I always believe this two valuable things are the writer appeals to in that time, also works in today’s.10、William Faulkner威廉·福克纳1897-1962--- Southern Renaissance (南方文艺复兴)“A Rose for Emily” is one of Faulkner most short stories.Miss Emily is kind of quiet andperverse, proud and aloof, haughty, brave and tough, a representative of traditio nal convention and so forth. The followings are going to expatiate on them.Another extremely crucial factor for Emily’s characters to form is the social element. Here it mainly refers to the environment—the Jefferson community around her. For the townspeople, Grieson family never choose a northerner, a day labor. They think even though Emily is sad, she can n ot forget that she is a noble. They seem to be Emily’s new father after her father died. They try to control Emily on her love affair. W hen Emily and Homer appear together, they talk about them with scornful expre ssion. However, the community’s opposition does not influence Emily’s persistent love with Homer. If the townspeople give up at this moment, the resul t of Emily may be much better. But, instead the opposition becomes further inten sified. A11、Ernest Hemingway欧内斯特·海明威1899-1961（“迷惘的一代”的代表人物）The Old Man and the Sea老人与海There is a very famous sentence in The Old Man and the Sea, "A man can be destroyed but not defeated". As far as I am concerned, "destroy" is a physical hurt caused by extrinsic force. However, "defeat" means one's spirit collapsed which was determined by internal heart. As long as one keep his faith, he will never be defeated.。